


Leave the World Behind

by khilari



Category: Girl Genius
Genre: F/M, Light BDSM, OT3 hints
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-23
Updated: 2014-07-23
Packaged: 2018-02-10 01:44:29
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,504
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2006280
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/khilari/pseuds/khilari
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Battle of Mechanicsburg ends somewhat better than in canon, which means Agatha has a little time for herself before the next disaster strikes. She thinks she might make Tarvek tremble and obey after all.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Leave the World Behind

The celebration in Mechanicsburg did include snail gelato, which wasn’t quite as bad as it sounded although Agatha felt one scoop had been enough, several better ways of cooking snails, wasp pie (which no one but the Jägers was eating), sausages, steaks, gingerbread and a lot of cake. Agatha had sated her hunger and was nibbling on an extremely nutty fruit cake anyway when Zeetha arrived, still in her armour and looking very pleased with herself.

‘Zeetha!’ Agatha exclaimed. ‘Where did you get to?’

‘I was with Higgs,’ said Zeetha, grinning.

‘Oh,’ said Agatha and then, ‘Oh! Congratulations.’

‘Thanks,’ said Zeetha, stealing Agatha’s cake. ‘What about you?’

‘I promised to dance with Tarvek. I should really go and find him,’ Agatha answered.

‘Just dance?’

‘Hm. He said if I wouldn’t tell him to tremble and obey I should at least dance with him, but I really don’t know why he wanted me to,’ said Agatha, absently, already scanning the crowds for him. There he was talking to Van, probably about practical things even in the middle of a party. It was enough to make her feel guilty for forgetting politics in favour of cake for a while.

When she looked back Zeetha was grinning too widely to continue eating. ‘Some guys like being pushed about,’ she said.

Agatha snorted. ‘Tarvek’s as bossy as Gil given the chance.’

‘You were handling both of them pretty well. But I _meant_ in bed.’

‘You…oh!’ Agatha buried her suddenly burning face in her hands. She really didn’t know about that sort of thing. She did have some idea of why Bill wound up half naked and tied up in so many Heterodyne Plays for the benefit of the audience, but it wasn’t as if she’d ever given it any thought. And Tarvek had been… ‘He _wants_ that?’

‘Probably,’ said Zeetha. ‘If he really told you to make him tremble and obey that’s not exactly _subtle_. The question is, what do _you_ want?’

‘I…’ Tarvek naked in front of her with her able to do _anything she wanted_ , tell _him_ to do anything. And what about Gil? He wasn’t the one who asked her to make him obey, or… oh god… made jokes about joining her harem, but she’d seen his expression when she demanded he get on the slab, she’d just been… distracted. A thought for another time. Gil wasn’t here, and… she wanted to have something she wanted. Why shouldn’t she? ‘I wouldn’t even know what to do with him,’ she whispered.

Zeetha patted her shoulder. ‘I think we need to have a conversation.’

It was a very… informative… conversation, and Agatha might stop blushing some time in the next year. Zeetha was leaning back against the wall of the museum where they’d gone to have it and trying gamely not to laugh at her. ‘Sound like something you want to try?’

‘Um. Yes,’ said Agatha.

‘Then go have fun.’

‘What, _now?_ ’ said Agatha, voice squeaking on the last word.

‘How soon do you think you’re likely to get another night off?’ asked Zeetha.

There was a polite throat-clearing sound from a nearby wall. ‘I did have some minions clean the master bedroom if you’re interested.’

‘Ack!’ said Agatha, and buried her face in her hands again. She’d just _stopped_ blushing, too. But Zeetha was right. Tomorrow they’d have to be ready for the next attack, who knew when she’d next get the chance to do anything just because she wanted to. It was complicated… she didn’t want to be Tarvek’s Heterodyne Princess, his key to taking over Europa. It wasn’t fair to Gil, to do something like this when he wasn’t here, when he was in trouble. No. This wasn’t about politics, this wasn’t about choosing, she just wanted to have something she wanted. She took a deep breath and glared at the ceiling for lack of anywhere better to glare. ‘I want _no_ commentary from _you_.’

‘As you say, Mistress,’ said the Castle.

Agatha smiled at Zeetha, feeling a little shaky and very determined. ‘Wish me luck.’

‘Doubt you’ll need it,’ said Zeetha.

* * *

Agatha approached Tarvek feeling far too aware that she’d never really tried to seduce anyone before. Tarvek turned to smile at her as she approached. There were bonfires around the edges of the square and candles along the centre of the tables, leaving him lit in different intensities of soft red-gold firelight. Agatha smiled back and draped herself over his shoulder, annoyed with herself for feeling self-conscious about something she would have done anyway. ‘You’re working in the middle of a party,’ she said, seeing the papers spread in front of him.

He tipped his head back slightly, against her shoulder, movement relaxed enough to be languid. ‘Have you come to take me away from the study of your defences?’

Agatha leant closer and tried to suppress a blush. ‘I thought I might see about making you tremble and obey after all.’ He tensed and whipped around, studying her with large, nervous eyes. Agatha let go and took a step backwards, feeling foolish and deflated. ‘Or not, if you don’t want to,’ she muttered.

He blinked, shoulders relaxing slightly. ‘Agatha?’ he said. ‘It’s you? I mean… just you?’

Agatha stared at him for a moment. ‘You thought I sounded like _Lucrezia?_ ’ There was a reflexive panic, thoughts turning inward as she tried to examine her own mind. But she felt nervous, excited and strangely yearning, nothing Lucrezia would feel. She glared at Tarvek as she felt her heart slow, furious that he’d just scared her like that. ‘You’re the one that says things like that and then I’m the bad guy when I try to take you up on it?’

‘I didn’t expect…’ He trailed off, blushing, and Agatha realised they had a highly interested audience.

‘Gah,’ she said. Why had she thought doing this in public was a good idea, anyway? She scowled at everyone generally, threw her hands up, and stormed off.

She slowed down once she was out of sight in an alley and wasn’t terribly surprised to hear footsteps behind her, or to feel Tarvek’s hand close uncertainly on her wrist. ‘Agatha?’ he said. ‘I’m sorry. I wasn’t expecting that from you. You’re right, I was… flirting with you, I shouldn’t have reacted like that when you flirted back.’

Agatha closed her eyes, remembering the interface room. She’d been cruel, she’d enjoyed being cruel, using love and desire as weapons. ‘You said you can get rid of her,’ she said.

‘Yes,’ said Tarvek.

She opened her eyes and closed her hand fiercely around his. ‘We’re doing that _now_.’

* * *

Agatha sat back in the chair, trying to relax in the straps, heart beating fast with a mixture of nervousness and _want_. Tarvek was glowing with the Spark, voice run through with vibrant harmonics, moving her as casually and as carefully as he adjusted the machinery she was attached to. She tipped into his touch, half against her will as she tried not to distract him, hummed softly as her mind flitted after the meaning behind what he was doing, calculating principles from each adjustment.

‘I’m going to have to take the locket off.’ He said it as a statement but waited for permission, hand closing over it and pressing a warm oval around its metal.

‘Good,’ Agatha purred, tipping her head back and letting him pull it away.

The world was hazy, and she exulted in the anger and despair she felt above her, closer to the surface, responded with fierce joy as Lucrezia _lost_. This was her body and as Lucrezia dissolved she rose to the surface like a fountain, like a geyser, bursting to fill herself beneath her heated skin. ‘She’s gone,’ she said, tugging against the straps.

‘There are still a few tests I should do,’ said Tarvek, sounding more distracted than apologetic.

Agatha blinked and calmed herself down, a little at least. ‘Yes,’ she said, biting down the wild exultance. ‘Of course.’

As he attached the electrodes to her head Tarvek’s touches became lighter and less sure. Now that Lucrezia was gone he was catching onto her mood, less fiercely concentrated on the process. When it was time to remove the straps she felt him fumble at the one around her waist and grinned. It was only seconds after she was free that she launched herself forward and kissed him, fierce and demanding. He kissed back just as hard, but when they had to part for breath he said, ‘Agatha?’ and this time it wasn’t a question about who she was but about… something else. What she was doing, why she was doing it. And the command harmonics were leaching out fast.

‘Stay there,’ Agatha commanded. He obediently froze and she growled. ‘No, stay _there_.’ She pressed a hand against his forehead. ‘Don’t come down yet, don’t stop Sparking, I _want that_.’

‘Oh.’ His eyes were wide and soft behind his glasses. Agatha felt like a thunderstorm wrapped in skin, she wanted to grab him and pour it into him the way she had with the Dyne energy, drag him up to the heights she was inhabiting. She kissed him again, nipping at his lips, licking into his mouth, silencing a tiny voice at the back of her head that said she wasn’t brought up to act like this with a louder one that said she was a _Heterodyne_. No one told Heterodynes what they should do.

Tarvek kissed back sharp and electric, as if it was working, and Agatha hummed appreciatively, Heterodyning into his mouth. He shivered, hands wrapped around her shoulders pulling her close so that she felt the shiver all down her front. Agatha tipped her head back to see his expression and found he was smiling, awestruck and smug at once, and she grinned back.

She pressed forward again, nipping at his throat, humming against it. ‘Hum,’ she said, almost against him, tongue flicking out to taste his skin before she continued. ‘Try it.’

‘Heterodyning?’ he asked, voice too breathy for the question. ‘No one can.’

She grinned again, pushing command into her voice, ‘Do as I say and try it.’ It still didn’t come out the way it did when she was angry, now it was a low growl, almost a purr.

Tarvek shivered again and swallowed. ‘Yes, Mistress.’

She nuzzled into his throat as he tried and it wasn’t Heterodyning, not really, too musical, too melodic, quavering as he tried to do what she did by instinct and hear the noises he needed to block. But it was something closer than she would have expected all the same, an imitation that didn’t fit the _now_ but was close to something she might have produced when the sounds were different.

‘No,’ she whispered, and nipped his earlobe gently between her teeth. ‘Like this.’ She hummed into his ear like a secret, so close the sounds they were blocking were the same. He copied, a beat behind, a little off, but close, close. Agatha felt the familiar sharpening it caused, blocking everything but her own thoughts and, right now, sensations. The smell of oil and hot metal around them, the subtler but closer scent of Tarvek’s skin, the feel of him under her fingers, the taste of him still on her tongue. She could hear both their heartbeats, every pause as they breathed.

Tarvek broke off with a startled gasp and Agatha paused herself, still pressed against him. ‘That’s… strange,’ he said, but she could hear the Spark dynamics beneath the words. ‘It blocks out so _much_.’

‘Didn’t you like it?’ she asked, dropping out of the madness place, for a moment almost demure.

‘I don’t know. That… isn’t it dangerous? It’s worse than just the madness place for stopping you noticing anything…’

‘We’re not in danger _here_ ,’ said Agatha.

‘I know. It’s still strange.’

‘I can’t actually _make_ you do anything,’ Agatha said, seriously, as much a reminder for herself as him. ‘But.’ She pressed her hands against his shoulders pushing him back against the machine, stretching so that despite their relative sizes she could almost loom, command and playfulness both rushing back into her voice. ‘Right now you don’t need to focus on anything but _me_.’

‘Yes, Mistress,’ he said, smiling slightly, half teasing even as he was flirting. 

When she started humming again he picked it up again. It was difficult to stay close enough that he could follow, copying her from inches away as they fumbled one another’s clothes off. Tarvek’s brow was furrowed with concentration, eyes occasionally fluttering closed, between the need to focus on mimicking her and the Heterodyning itself he was less aware of the world around him, less aware of his own thoughts, than she’d ever seen him. Both thrumming with the Spark and totally vulnerable to her. He could have broken out of it just by stopping the soft droning, it was his own effort that was keeping him too pliable to resist or question as she pushed him down, spread him out on the floor, ran her hands over him as if she’d like to learn him by heart.

Gil she wanted to rage at and adventure with, come together in every passionate way, but Tarvek she could hold in the palm of her hand. He could be hers as Mechanicsburg was hers and loved as deeply. (Not true, not really, he’d never let her, but for now… for now it could be real…)

He reached for her, sliding his hands over her breasts, her hips. Mouth by his ear she couldn’t see his face, but she could feel the awe in each soft touch. Touches that suddenly became firmer when he reached between her legs, curiosity taking over, the Spark in him rising to the surface she’d deliberately kept it close to. _If I touch like this, like this, like this._

She didn’t speak, not wanting to stop humming and let the world outside of them rush in. She had no use for sounds outside soft breaths, breaks in the thrum of them together, or the slide of skin on skin. Instead she encouraged and discouraged with little strokes and slaps that made Tarvek’s breath catch in a whine. Her breath was getting faster, the drone slipping, slipping as heat built in her belly.

She moved fast, sliding up Tarvek, bending to keep their heads close as she slid her hips over his, guided him inside her.

The music stopped and the world came crashing back in time to be wrested away from her by another deep and all encompassing sensation.

* * *

It was a little while later, still lying cuddled up on Tarvek’s chest, that Agatha realised the floor of the laboratory was hard, cold and not particularly clean. ‘I didn’t choose the most comfortable place for you to try this,’ she murmured apologetically.

He stroked a hand through her hair. ‘I wouldn’t mind finding a bed,’ he said. ‘But it’s all right. I didn’t notice anything but you.’


End file.
